Let's read the entire run

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 217: May 1995


part 8/8


Through the looking glass: Something a little different here this month. Modular components? That's something that could definitely do with a special feature. After all, they're good value for money, but require careful shopping to ensure maximum compatibility with your other bits and pieces. Guess we might end this column on a high note.

Firstly, there's some 6mm scaled city scenery. 6mm? They don't normally review stuff that small. That's the size of those teeny plastic toy soldiers. Not easy getting good paint jobs on those. Somewhat more warhammer appropriate is a castle assembly kit that'll be just about big enough for 28mm things, but could be more impressively looming at 15mm. Six minotaurs in different poses. Not sure how that's modular. A second, slightly longer review of the Kill Zone game, with plenty of playtest info. As with the other one, the overall verdict is pretty positive. And finally, FASA's Citytech game gets it's 2nd edition reviewed. Well, that theme petered out pretty quick. So much for a focussed topic.


TSR Previews: Audio CD frippery comes to Ravenloft as well in A light in the Belfry. As ever, play the tracks at the appropriate juncture for extra horror. Just be ready to hit stop quickly, otherwise it'll run over to the next track and the players'll get spoilers. They also release an adventure tying in with the recent Van Richten's guide. Circle of Darkness has the players stuck between a Tanar'ri and a Darklord. Can they kick the ass of both sides?

The forgotten realms is sticking close to home base in Sword of the Dales. Mourndale is having a little lich trouble. Why are these low level schmucks being asked to help solve it? I suspect some railroading may be involved here to make this one work.

Planescape gets In the Cage: A guide to sigil. It has plenty of detail already, now you get even more, so you can wander around to your hearts content. Just don't get sucked into the plane of ooze.

Dragonlance gets The History of the Dragonlance setting. Another crunch free recounting of stuff that's happened, both IC and OOC. With interviews by the prime players it it's success. They're in an odd position. The novels continue to sell solidly, but the gaming material has petered out from lack of interest. Can they drum up a new generation of actual players somehow?

The Encyclopedia Magica is up to book 3. The green one with tons of other spellbooks detailed within. Just the thing for the wizardly among you.You'll have to wait until next time for the swords though.

CCG's get pushed hard this month. Spellfire gets a reference guide, with strategies, errata, tournament rules, and all sorts of other ways to put it's buyer at an advantage compared to those who didn't shell out. Blood wars gets Expansion pack 2: Factols and factions. Oh boy, now we're really in trouble, if open war has got into the city of doors. Good thing this stuff isn't canon for the gameline as well like Legend of the 5 Rings.


The featured articles section in this one is excellent, with a very high amount of game changing ideas. The rest of the magazine, once again, not so much. The reviews seem to be losing their editorial focus, and there's absolutely tons of crap promotional stuff in this one. Neither are particularly pleasing developments. And since they're having a big shakeup of the editorial staff, things are likely to stay annoying for a few issues yet. Let's see if they've remembered to get some proper birthday presents amid all this.

 

[Ajax1979]

Dragon Magazine Issue 152: December 1989


Forum: Toby Myers thinks that if a game doesn't cover a particular thing brilliantly, steal a subsystem or set of modifiers from another game that does it better. He's done it repeatedly to great success. Long live frankengames!

James R Collier thinks that while magic might replace the big developments, technology still has it's place in D&D worlds, especially for things that you have to do in large quantity. Magic is crap at mass production.

Jason Dunn tells a fairly dramatic story of a powerful mage who thought he could take on a whole cavern full of humanoids. While he made it, it was a close call. A combination of action economy and the odd magic item means low level characters can deal with a much smaller quantity of powerful ones with a little tactics.

This was one of the first issues I ever bought. Jason Dunn's letter still sticks in my mind. What got me was that these orcs were not living in a "Tucker's Kobolds" deathtrap. There wasn't anything out of the ordinary about the lair.

They just had the foresight to post sentries and have an alarm system. A great read and one of my favorite letters ever published in Dragon.

 

[Orius]

The featured articles section in this one is excellent, with a very high amount of game changing ideas. The rest of the magazine, once again, not so much. The reviews seem to be losing their editorial focus, and there's absolutely tons of crap promotional stuff in this one. Neither are particularly pleasing developments.

I kind of agree with your assessment. I don't really remember being particularly impressed with my first issue of Dragon, and it might be why I didn't start getting them regularly until the end of the year (I never picked up the summer isses from '95). I mean there were some interesting articles at the beginning but the rest is loaded down with reviews and promotional stuff. It's probably for the best that Dragon soon ended up dumping some of the review columns and started putting more useable game content in.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 218: June 1995


part 1/8


124 pages. Birthday number 19 here. And for the first time in over 10 years, they forget to advertise that on the cover. Either they're starting to feel the budget cuts, or they no longer want to boast about how old they are. Still, the quality of the cover is pretty much unchanged, with a rather epic dracolich coming round for an attack on a castle. Let's see if the contents can match up to that.


In this issue:


Letters: The primary topic this month is the critical hit teaser article. This is one of those rules that generates a lot of controversy, and so it proves this time around. One is just plain against their current implementation, while the other two are just unclear on the finer points of the rules. In any case, it's pretty obvious that this is user base splitting stuff. A few people'll be driven away, others simply won't buy it, and if there's a mixed opinion within a gaming group, there'll be a lot of debate on whether to adopt the new rules or not. Oh boy. Here we go. Another rather negative signpost in retrospect.

A letter saying that the M:tG craze seems to have died down in their area. Maybe so, but that just means it's levelling off. It still has a long and highly profitable life ahead of it.

And a request for Chaosium's address. Call of Cthulhu is still a fairly popular game amongst Dragon readers, for some reason.


Editorial: The last editor said goodbye last issue. No surprise that the new one says hello this time. And straight away, they're talking about giving things a major shake-up. Things can't go on the way they are. But at the same time, if you change things the wrong way, you'll only make them worse. They're very aware that at the moment they're looking a little dinosaurish, and don't want to die. Which is a perfectly valid fear really, since it will actually come to pass in the near future. So this is an editorial that shows they're entirely aware of the trouble they're about to get themselves into. What a way to start off a birthday.


First quest: Whoa. Ed Greenwood gives us his first gaming experiences this month. And it's an absolute doozy. The tale of how he was shaped into an awesome dungeon master by a girl from university who then died of cancer reads as almost too perfect to be true narratively. Exactly how much artistic licence he made in recounting this tale is something I'm very curious about. Still, it would explain why he became so driven to create as much as possible in the time he has. Being exposed to the fragility of life at a young age can have that kind of effect on people. So this is both genuinely tearjerking in a way most of these stories are not, and quite informative. There are some quite serious issues behind him ending up the person he did, and they could probably be explored in more depth than this. Question is, does he really want that, or would he prefer to stay behind the scenes and let his creations do the talking? Hmm. Anyone got any links to further interviews where he actually talks about his own life seriously?


Birthright!. Here we go with the last big setting of the 2e era. Ready, Steady, Rule!

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 218: June 1995


part 2/8


Tanzin the Gray: Straight after the advert is our first proper birthright article. And like all the other important players in Cerilia, they're rare and individual in their stats, not just part of some generic subrace. And here's one of the oldest and most well known. Unsurprisingly, he gets personally connected in to all the big events of the setting, which is a bit mary-sueish, but since they've only just released it, they probably haven't filled in the minor details of the world enough yet. And lets face it, a great wyrm should be badass enough to participate in world-shaking events, especially when they're one of maybe a dozen on the entire continent. And he is suitably badass, Aside from the major artwork fail ( a purple dragon where he's described as grey, and it's way too small as well) this fits the bill. He's sufficiently morally ambiguous that he could serve as an ally or an enemy for the party, and he has some rather good reasons to want to interact with the world rather than snoozing the centuries away. So this is pretty well designed stuff that fills exactly the niche they intended, and is quite useful for your game, but isn't particularly surprising. By this point, they've designed so many worlds in quick succession that there is quite a bit of following the formula and going through the motions involved.


Dragon Intrigues: An article encouraging you to play your dragons proactively and intelligently? We had one of those last year. Still, this is substantially longer and has more specific examples than last time, which is a definite plus. Greg Detwiler once again shows that he's one of our more reliable workmen, with an article that's low on originality, but high on game usefulness. A lot of emphasis is put on their power to manipulate the environment and order various creatures around. Sure, they might also change shape and infiltrate human society, but really, they're dragons. They ought to be taking a wider view of control than just looking at the effects of a single species. So this is a little iffy from the perspective of a long time reader, but excellent for more recent arrivals to the magazine. For all that they appear in the name of the game, you see dragons surprisingly rarely in actual play, so this kind of advice does come in handy.


Dragon dweomers: Another topic we've seen before. Spells by dragons, for dragons, and in many cases unusable by other creatures, be it due to magical restriction or mere practical physiology. Guess it's going to have to be another case where I judge on the specifics, not the generalities.

Aerial Acceleration alliteratively augments your airborne abilities for fantasticaly functional flight. In flight movie not provided, but if you're in the middle of combat, that would be a bad idea anyway.

Aura of Terror enhances your fear aura. This is obviously useless if you don't have one in the first place. But you wouldn't put it past a Lich to nick this one for their own pleasure. Maybe a mummy too.

Blast Jewel is a variant on fire trap that does substantially more damage. It also ruins any stuff around it, making sure thieves can't profit from their ill-gotten gains. Sour grapes or what? Dragons really can bear grudges for a long time.

Focus Fear allows you to reduce the area of your fear and increase it's intensity. I'd just breathe on them and watch them die horribly. It'd be a far more efficient use of your action for the round. One for the metallic dragons who don't really want to kill casually then.

Hoardguard lets you glue all your treasure together into a great immovable mass. Whether this makes it more or less comfortable to sleep on is not revealed, but at least it makes it harder to steal. It's duration isn't too long though, so if they come back the day after killing you, they'll be fine. Will they figure that out though, or waste tons of time on complicated curse removal methods?

Pseudodragon lets a dragon summon mini-me's. This is one that is completely useless to nondragons then. There's a whole load of speculation as to where these come from, since they don't resemble regular pseudodragons. Schrodinger's summoning, I guess. Best not to think about it too hard or you'll destroy the universe.

Razorfangs gives you near vorpal teeth. Careful with them, for limb severing makes a lifelong enemy if you don't finish them off.

Shadow Scry is only dragon specific because it relies on your connection with your lair to work. That's a trick that shouldn't be too hard to emulate. And then you can track people from anywhere there's a shadow. And since this is your lair, you can probably make sure there's plenty of shadows everywhere.

Shadow Dragon lets you turn into a shadowy form that's near impossible to hurt save by light, and can still breathe and use spells on you. Unsurprisingly, it was developed by a shadow dragon, and fits their sneaky modus operandi to a tee. Be ready for calls of unfairness from players.

Sharptooth is the less powerful relation of Razorfangs. Even the dumbest white dragon can get use out of this one. And you know those extra points of damage add up over a battle. So there's quite a few spells here that could be a staple of your dragon's tactics, and enough of them are usable by PC's that they won't feel totally gypped. Once again, I'm going to have to return a result of competent but not thrilling. This birthday set hasn't been nearly as distinctive and quirky as last one.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 218: June 1995


part 3/8


Spice of life: Having A plots and B plots in the same episode of a TV show is a well established convention. Similarly, in a show with continuity, there will generally be at least one plot thread per main character, and these will alternately get the spotlight at some point or another. Now, how can we make that principle work for our games? For a start, a large group with multiple characters is going to have problems. You have to make sure people are paying attention and don't get confused. And you have to move back and forth between plots quickly enough that they seem concurrent rather than separate episodes in a larger metaplot. This all becomes a lot easier if you're all operating from a single location like a city, and characters can split up for short periods and then get together again without too much trouble. The big reward of this style of plotting is that it makes games less likely to peter out after you've accomplished some big objective, as there'll always be more plot threads lying around to pick up on. Some of you'll already be doing this instinctively, but for those who aren't, this is another pretty decent bit of GM'ing advice. We've said many times that you've got to be a good observer if you want to be a great storyteller, and this is another angle on getting that across.


The game wizards: Hmm. As with spellfire, it looks like the Blood Wars CCG is encouraging you to do things that they strictly forbid in the RPG. This time it's having open warfare in Sigil. All the factions are being dragged in, and the gods aren't far behind. So as with actively encouraging twinking in CCG's while discouraging it for AD&D play, this shows a definite developing double standard between the games. You can of course break it in your own game, and there are several instances they'll casually do something in the name of metaplot that would also get a rather sniffy reception if ordinary PC's & DM's did it and then wrote into the magazine about it, (kill an entire city and turn them into undead? surely in any decent adventure the PC's would get to foil this successfully? ) but it is very much there. Who's really having the badwrongfun these days? All I know is it sure ain't me, and this article gives me more reasons to be grumpy.


Forum: Nigel Epsley points out how many things were wrong with the player throwing a tantrum about 1st level characters standing up to his 11th level wizards. Discipline, force of numbers, the frequency and level of wonder magic has. You can't just drop out of the sky and expect people to worship you in a world where weird happens all the time.

Robert Melvin points out the problems with a spell/fatigue point system for magic. Wizards pump their Con ridiculously, and spam a few spells over and over again. it's a good deal less fun than D&D's regular one in actual play.

Greg Detwiler praises issue 216's Paths of Power. He offers his commentary on the advantages and disadvantages illusionists would face under this system. Double-bluffing is always a good idea for deceitful types to really keep others on their toes.

Alex Plocki reminds us that paladins need to be lawful as well as good. That should be a priority for them over whatever god they serve. I am dubious. Do you serve your employer, or the principles your employer ought to serve? I know which one is more likely to get you fired in the real world.

The forum welcomes it's first email contributor, who is simply called Steve. New technology is penetrating everywhere. He is also rather interested in Paths of Power, offering a little contribution on how bards fit into this new system. They might have trouble getting a foothold on the arcane arts, but become real jacks of all trades once they've picked up enough paths, which seems appropriate.

Floyd Adams III is one of those people who sees the strengths of the cleric, both statistically and socially. Magic-users and thieves'll really have to struggle to get the respect and breadth of powers clerics can claim as standard. Godly backup and worshippers count for a lot.

CLS Innis thinks giving characters xp bonuses for high stats is exacerbating the unfairness. We've heard that one before and it continues to make sense from a metagame perspective, if not a realism one.

Stephen Carter points out the difference between dark and mature games quite rationally. It's quite possible for a game to be one but not the other. In the end, fun is more important than either. Amen to that.

Mike Clair is suffering from insecurity about being a DM. Afraid he's not doing it properly, he asks for help. Oh just get on with it. 20 years ago people had no-one to learn from, they did ok.

Philip Crawley suggests modelling the character's hometown on the player's real hometown to help ease them into playing, make it as familiar as it should be. That presumes they stick around their hometown and come back, which many adventurers don't.

Joe Walker has found his game ramping up to ridiculous monty haul levels, and not being able to do much about it. Well, of course not, now you're there. This is what the reset button is for.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 218: June 1995


part 4/8


Magic resistance, step by step: Oh bloody hell, this rules pain in the ass again. Issue 79 covered it in 1st edition, but that's a long time ago now, and they shook things up quite a bit in the edition change. Skip Williams has answered more than a few questions about it in his time here. Will a full article about it settle this once and for all? Maybe for a year or two, if he's lucky. So like forum getting a stoneskin special back in issue 199, this feels like a sage advice special on top of the regular one. It's all pretty clear and sensible, and is over in a page and a half. Makes you wonder why it was a problem in the first place. Is it because far too many people don't read the rules properly, or is it the fault of the rules for being scattered around the books and sometimes contradicted in supplements. Probably a bit of both. As with last time, this isn't too gripping, although the writing is less dry than last time round. It's a good use for the magazine, but at the same time, you can't help but wish they didn't have to do it. Well, no shortage of other issues they'd do articles on instead if it wasn't there. Meh.


Eye of the monitor: Aww, poor Apple. They're pretty much reaching the nadir of their popularity. Co-incidence that they nearly went bankrupt at the same time as TSR? Probably, but it's amusing to ponder. In the meantime, they still have some pretty avid followers in our writing team, arty types that they are. So both reviews this month are mac ones. Well, at least they're not Atari Jaguar ones or something. That would truly be a lost cause at this point.

Jump Raven gets a whole load of grumbling because it's far too tricky, and no fun to play. There are plenty of shooting games where you can control everything without a co-pilot, and where the collision detection works properly. Complexity & shiny visuals do not equal fun.

Cosmology of Kyoto, on the other hand, isn't really a game, but is both interesting and educational. Explore the streets of japan, encounter all kinds of supernatural weirdness, and try to reincarnate yourself into a favorable form. Course, going to one of the many hells or being reincarnated as a dog just gives you new avenues to explore. For someone who loves oriental stuff as we know zeb does, it's quite a treat, even if it is slow and often a bit illogical. Still, since many of the legends are long and not entirely coherent, this adds to the mythical feel. It's achieved what it set out to do, even if that isn't for everyone.


The nature of evil: Ah yes, the question of how to make a really memorable villain. There's one that's always an issue as soon as you introduce an overarching plot with a big bad to your game. The choice here is fairly simple. To make them significant, you need to make the players fear and hate them. And of course the rest of the article is focussed on methods of achieving that. Not a hugely nuanced method compared to the ones that really try and get into your NPC's heads and find out what makes them tick, but the focussed tricks are often quicker. Figure out what they can do, and what they will do to the PC's when they interfere with their plans. Make them mean, make it personal, set them up and deceive them, turn their friends against them, and generally make Evil mean more than just a letter on a sheet and a side in a conflict. It even recommends that you play on the personal fears of your players, which is something that can backfire badly. These things are a balancing act. If you have the villain raping, killing and then reanimating their character's babies as undead monstrosities the players may leave in disgust. So I think this article doesn't quite present the degree of perspective and moderation that you need for a truly great campaign. But if you're looking for trouble, you'll get it in spades following this advice.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 218: June 1995


part 5/8


Rumblings: Rather a grab bag of arrivals and departures here, few of which really leap out and grab me. Most notable is the departure of Vampire developer Andrew Greenberg. Their gonzo era is about to draw to a close, with the mad overarching conspiracies reined back into a more coherent form. Also of interest is the mention of WotC releasing Everway, and of course Changeling: the Dreaming. Both of which use cards in their mechanics, quite possibly as a response to the CCG craze.

Speaking of CCG's it looks like the X-files is licencing their name out to get in on that action, following in the footsteps of Star Trek. As are The Crow, James Bond and Wing Commander. The cash-ins just keep on coming. When will this bubble burst?


The ecology of the bird maiden: Another setting gets it's first ecology. We sail over to Zakhara to tackle a creature that is very strongly based on real world mythology. Tales of people who turn into animals by putting on skins are incredibly common in many cultures. And almost as ubiquitous is the idea that if you steal their skin and keep it, you can force them into marrying you, at least until they find it, at which point they are likely to depart, possibly inflicting some horrible vengeance along the way, and taking any kids that may have resulted from the union with them. Seems like the kind of idea that really really isn't worth it. But arrogant fat merchants are notoriously genre blind, and deserve everything they get. While this story is a bit anvilicious in the way it rams home it's moral message, it does manage to put a good D&D specific spin on the old story, and make them seem pretty decent as both NPC's and PC's. They certainly make more sense as shapeshifters than Swanmays. (I mean, what kind of form to change into is that? It's no good for stealth, not brilliant for combat, and similarly rubbish in terms of speed and maneuverability. Silly myths.)


The hyborean gates card game. Another bandwagon jumper. Note the pic of Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell looking incredibly pumped. Nice to see some artists still find the time to work out.

Species also gets a game licence. Man, now that's a rather limited property to work with.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Magazine Issue 218: June 1995


part 6/8


Role-playing Reviews: Oh man. Rick gets sucked into doing a CCG special. THEY ARE NOT ROLE-PLAYING GAMES. Call the column something else if you're going to cover this kind of stuff regularly. Still, it looks like they're here to stay. Maybe you ought to start a new magazine focussing on them. Then that'd get them out of our hair and let the people who still prefer creating worlds enjoy that again.

Star trek: The next generation CCG gets a 6 pip result, with great visuals on the cards, and the rules creating games that reflect a ST mission instead of being a straightforward battle like most other CCGs. The details of the setting are carefully adhered to. The only oddity in that respect is that you can wind up using the same character on both sides, which is kinda an inevitability in a CCG as compared to a limited deck game.

Star of the guardians is from Margaret Weis, as mentioned in the Rumblings column a few months ago. As with Krynn, this CCG is also a novel line, and looks like being a nice little earner for her. It's fairly simple and fast, and has some loose mechanics, but hangs together well enough, and gets straight to the action. You'll have to get the novels to find out much about the setting and characters.

Galactic empires brings warring alien races to the CCG arena. Like many a wargame that covers similar territory, you have to make huge complex logistical and tactical decisions, and do lots of bookkeeping. One for lovers of really crunchy games, it is quite fun if you can handle the rules, and the setting certainly seems cool. Guess they're going to make the same mistakes RPG designers did in the search to one-up M:tG.

Illuminati: new world order sees this long running game adapted to the collectible craze. This of course allows things to be even more multilayered and convoluted. Which is exactly what the game needs, really. Rick gives it 6 pips, finding it thoroughly achieves it's design goals, even if it isn't particularly newbie friendly. I'll bet he was paid by the church of the zogonian ascension( using the FBI as an intermediary) to say that.


Rifts goes underwater, and to japan. There will be appropriate PC classes and power creep, as you would expect.


Fiction: The time of leaving by Ron Collins. A story about growing up seems appropriate for a birthday issue, especially as the magazine leaves it's teens behind. Still, these days it becomes increasingly difficult for children to leave the nest, for one reason and another. (mostly economic) And a lot of the time the parents feel the wrench as much as the kids do. So this is a story where the mentor figure thinks it's time for the student to leave, the student disagrees, and eventually, proves he has the right to stay as well as leave. Not the usual way these things go in stories. On the other hand, since in reality the balance of power shifts as the parents become increasingly frail and unable to keep up with changes in technology, it's one that happens more in reality than we'd like. So this makes for quite melancholy reading, but not in a bad way. Not all those big truths are pleasant ones, and stories can choose to reflect those as well.

 

[Emirikol]

I remember Illuminati. Do they still make that game from back in the day?

jh
pain to think about how long ago that was